Throughout major metropolitan areas in the United States, public schools face an extreme racial divide. For example, in New York State, the five boroughs of New York City represent nearly 60% of the states black students. However, out of thirty-two Office of School Design (OSD) schools in New York City, nineteen had 0% or less white students in 200. 73% of the public charter schools in the five boroughs can be considered apartheid schools and 90% of them can be at least considered intensely segregated with less than 0% white students. New York City public schools continue to remain among the most segregated in the United States. Out of the 895 slots in the freshman class at the selective specialized high school, Stuyvesant, only seven of the slots were allotted to black students. New York City Mayor, Bill de Blasio, previously planned to discard and overrule the Hecht-Calandra Act which required the specialized high school exam; however, he was met with severe backlash. Many New York residents and legislators believe this exam to be a disadvantage to minority students due to the severe underfunding of segregated public schools throughout the five boroughs. Evidently, racial and socioeconomic segregation in New York has become more pronounced in New York City than five decades ago. In 206, a proposal to send Manhattans Upper West Side children, who were zoned for a high-performing, white majority, wealthy public school, to a lower-performing school attended by mainly low-income black and Hispanic students by bus (roughly a ten-minute walk from zoned school) was met with vitriol. This can be seen as evidence of residential segregation which resulted from the blockbusting scam in the 950s and 960s. The blockbusting scam was orchestrated by realtors who scared whites into selling their homes, therefore opening up their homes to African-Americans. At this time, African-Americans grew impatient for better housing and realtors realized they could potentially gain huge profits by exploiting racial tensions. The relators initiated the scam by buying a house or property on an all-white block and then encouraging an African-American family to purchase it. The rea
ltors would then go around the block warning the white families on the block that black people were going to invade their community, claiming that the black families would ruin the neighborhood and decrease the property values on the block. Thus, led to white families selling their homes brashly at low values, to which the realtors would quickly sell them to black families at a much higher price, exploiting their vulnerability and desperation for housing. Blockbusting, however, no longer a common occurrence, opened the doors for policies that explicitly encourage racial segregation such as redlining. Redlining, the process of refusing a loan or insurance to someone because they live in an area deemed to be a poor financial risk, can be seen as a direct effect of solidifying the residential segregation that exists today.
The Upper West Side, to follow the previous example, is 66.9% white. Hispanics follow as the second-largest racial/ethnic group at just 3.5%, followed by blacks at 7.6%. Since the neighborhood is predominantly white, it can be assumed that the public schools would be as well. However, to be considered a diverse district, no one race can make up more than 75% of students. Therefore, the possibility of greater integration in the Upper West Side school district is plausible. Looking at New York City through a greater lens than just the Upper West Side brings the severity of racial segregation in public schools into a much harsher light. School segregation increased between school districts from 970-2000, but declined within districts. The elimination of court-mandated desegregation efforts in many districts in the 970s was largely responsible for the rise in racial segregation. The efforts included mandatory busing, similar to the proposed plan for the Upper West Side public schools. Racial populations in schools are largely determined by the racial composition of the schools attendance boundaries. If all children residing in a school catchment area attended the local school, the racial composition of the school and neighborhood would be theoretically identical. This does not account for private schools, charter schools, and magnet schools.